Comparing the 5G pace of the three major operators: China Telecom advocates steady progress in four points

As the core of the next generation technology, 5G has always been the focus of competition among domestic and foreign operators. As the 5G commercialization time generally expected by the industry approaches, this 5G game has entered a hot stage.

At the 10th Tianyi Smart Ecosystem Expo which opened on September 13, China Telecom clearly called out the "hello5G" action plan, and put forward four propositions for 5G construction starting from standards, networks, application models, and terminal industries.

From the 5G development plan released by China Telecom and the information previously disclosed by China Unicom and China Mobile, can we summarize the common features of the 5G network construction of the three major Chinese operators?

By comparing with public information, we can find that the main themes of 5G development for the three major operators are to focus on standards, build 5G innovation centers, insist on SA networking trials, and roll out city-scale trials in order to achieve 5G commercialization in 2020.

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1. Start with standards

“First-rate companies set standards, second-rate companies build brands, and third-rate companies sell technology.” It can be said that standards are of great significance to 5G, so communication companies have made 5G standards the main focus in the early stages of commercial use.

At the conference, Yang Jie, Chairman of China Telecom, proposed four proposals for China Telecom's 5G development, the first of which is to work with industry partners to promote the maturity of 5G standards. Specifically, in terms of 5G services and business models, China Telecom will lead the ITU's 5G service scenarios and business model standards, ITU's 5G network service scheduling standards, and ETSI's 5G network slicing interface standards; in terms of network intelligence, China Telecom will lead the 3GPP's 5G network automation standards, 3GPP's 4G/5G interoperability standards based on intelligent perception, and ETSI's network artificial intelligence standards; in terms of fixed-mobile convergence, China Telecom will conduct in-depth research on 5G multi-network convergence technology, focus on edge computing for fixed-mobile convergence, and be the first in the industry to propose and verify multi-network convergence technology based on 3GPP standards.

In fact, the three major operators have made outstanding contributions to international standards and patents. It is reported that China Mobile leads the 3GPP 5G scenario and demand project, the 3GPP 5G network architecture project and the 3GPP wireless intelligent network research project, and China Mobile experts serve as vice chairmen of the ITU 5G focus group and 3GPP RAN2 vice chairmen.

At the same time, by the end of June 2018, China Telecom had led 31 5G international standard projects and tasks, submitted 457 international papers, and applied for 190 technical patents, of which 143 were granted patent protection. In addition, China Telecom also undertook 19 major national science and technology projects in 5G, of which it led 7.

2. Adhere to the SA networking solution and roll out city pilots

Under the standard, rolling out the network has become the main topic for operators. At present, the three major operators have expressed their intention to adhere to SA networking and roll out 5G pilot tests in multiple cities.

The second point proposed by China Telecom is to jointly build a 5G smart network. Specifically, China Telecom will set up a 5G innovation center to study the synergy between 5G and AI, big data, and blockchain. At the same time, it will conduct large-scale trials in 17 cities to verify the SA networking solution and 4G/5G interoperability, promote end-to-end connectivity of terminals, services, and networks, and strive to fully carry out network construction in 2020 and realize large-scale commercial use of 5G services.

In terms of networking mode, after the three major operators announced their commitment to SA networking at the 2018 Shanghai MWC, test verification was also carried out simultaneously. Previously, China Telecom announced the official launch of 5G SA (standalone networking) testing, pushing the 5G SA standard into the actual product landing.

At the same time, China Mobile had previously planned to conduct 5G non-independent networking field tests in July 2018, launch independent networking field tests in November, and launch friendly user tests in October next year.

In addition, China Mobile and China Unicom have also made nationwide deployments in terms of city pilots. Specifically, China Mobile has implemented the "5+12" strategy, planning 500 sites in five major cities for 5G trials, and 500 sites in 12 cities for business demonstrations; China Unicom has currently launched 5G scale trials in 16 cities including Beijing, Tianjin, Qingdao, Hangzhou, Nanjing, Wuhan, Guiyang, Chengdu, Shenzhen, Fuzhou, Zhengzhou, and Shenyang.

3. Application innovation is the highlight

In fact, if 5G is to achieve commercial success, the key is to innovate applications. This time, China Telecom’s third point is to jointly innovate 5G application models.

Specifically, China Telecom has formulated a three-step plan for 5G application innovation, namely, the first step is the cooperation expansion stage, that is, the establishment of the 5G Application Innovation Alliance in 2018, the release of the 5G Application Cooperation White Paper, and the key cooperation with industry benchmark companies. The second step is the joint innovation stage, in 2019, joint research, scenario refinement, application development, ecological co-construction, and joint network trials. The third step is the scale promotion stage, in 2020, the first batch of applications and 5G services will be commercialized simultaneously, "5G + application" will continue to deepen and integrate, and business models and ecological cooperation will continue to innovate.

In addition, the other two major operators have also established 5G innovation centers. China Mobile is the first operator to establish 5G joint innovation. At the same time, China Unicom also established a 5G innovation center in August this year to plan 5G development in advance, promote the application of 5G in vertical industries, and strengthen cooperation with leading companies in key industries to achieve large-scale promotion of industry applications.

4. 5G terminals boom

In addition, promoting the coordinated development of the industrial chain is an important part of the successful commercialization of 5G.

China Telecom's first proposition is to jointly prosper the 5G terminal industry. It will highlight the characteristics of "large bandwidth, large connection, and quasi-real time", accelerate the diversification of 5G terminals, and formulate a 5G terminal evolution plan, which is divided into three aspects: technical verification, field trials, and large-scale use to complete the 5G terminal evolution.

Specifically, the first stage is the technical verification stage, that is, in 2018, the 5G terminal R&D alliance was established, the 5G terminal white paper 1.0 was released, and industry terminal research was launched. The second stage is the field test stage, in 2019, the prototype/test machine for test verification was jointly developed, the terminal procurement plan was released, and the 5G terminal open laboratory was established. The third stage is the scale use stage, in 2020, the scale commercial terminals will be promoted, the 5G vertical industry terminals will be cooperated, and the 5G commercial terminal standards will be released. At the same time, AI empowerment will be used to improve the terminal experience, realize protocol interoperability, security enhancement and other features, and form various forms of 5G terminals.

In fact, in terms of terminal products, China Mobile has proposed a promotion plan. In addition to the "5G Terminal Product Guidelines" for large-scale trials that have been released, it will release the "5G Pre-commercial Terminal White Paper" for pre-commercial use in November this year, and the "5G Terminal White Paper" for commercial needs in June next year. It also proposed to launch the first batch of 5G terminals in the first quarter of 2019 and 5G smartphones in the third quarter.

It can be foreseen that with the steady progress of the 5G construction plan, 5G commercialization will no longer be far away.